Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat
Cursery: The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat is a game by Blue Tea Games that is a spin-off of the Dark Parables game series. It operates with the same game mechanics and overall story-telling style, and may even take place in the same universe. As such, we're adding a brief summary of the game here. To read reviews or play the game for yourself, click here: Standard ~ Collector's Edition Plot The game opens in the dark of night. A full moon lights our way as we travel in a horse-drawn carriage with our sister, Renee. She tells us about kidnapped maidens who have all gone missing from this very same path. Suddenly, a black cat with two different colored eyes jumps out in front of our carriage. A tall, lanky man appears and grabs Renee. We reach out to stop him, but he disappears with our sister in a puff of black smoke. His cat follows after. While trying to find our way in the dark forest, we find and rescue a trapped lamb. A shadowed figure emerges from the forest to thank us. She tells us her name is Marianne and she tells us the sad tale of the nobleman who fell in love with a common girl who died before they could be wed. She tells us this Count is the Crooked Man that has been kidnapping young women in the hopes of finding the reincarnation of his beloved fiancee. Marianne tells us that in order to save our sister, we must defeat the Crooked Man once and for all. We head deeper into the forest, following the trail of the Crooked Man. Along the way, we run into the ghost of a young man named Laurent who begs us to rescue his fiancee, Amely, from the Crooked Man. We take his pocketwatch to deliver to her if we can. Following the Crooked Man brings us to a gigantic tree with a door in it. He's set a lynx to guard the door and keep us from going through, but it doesn't delay us for long and we head into the tree. Here, we find Amely hanging onto a branch for dear life after a failed escape attempt. We throw her a rope and pull her back inside, then give her Laurent's pocketwatch. Distraught, she heads off to find him and we continue our search for Renee and the Crooked Man. We head into a tower,where we could've sworn we saw the Crooked Man's Crooked Cat turn into a human...? Before we can worry about that, we find Renee locked in a cell. She assures us she'll be alright, but asks us to find her a weapon to defend herself. In our search for something to give her, we find another kidnapped girl being kept in a locked birdcage. We also encounter a strange-looking man who turns into the Crooked Cat right before our very eyes! After finding a dagger, we rush to give it to Renee, who urges us to save the other girl first. We head off to do so - but we're too late. The Crooked Man places a ring on the girl's finger and she turns into a wooden puppet. He laments that this girl is not his fiancee (which is why she turned to wood), and lets us know that he has done this to many girls before this one... and our sister is next. We're attacked and knocked out by the Crooked Cat in his human form. When we awaken, we're locked in a prison full of the remains of other people who have gotten in the Crooked Man's way by trying to rescue their loved ones. We manage to free ourselves, and go to look for Renee. We find the cell she was in empty, and the dagger we gave her has been left behind by the Crooked Man with a picture of a village we've never seen before. Underneath a pool of quicksand, we find a secret entrance underground and evidence that this is the path the Crooked Man has taken with Renee in tow. We also keep seeing the ghost of a woman who looks eerily like Renee and seems to be the woman who is memorialized all over the Crooked Man's lair. The Crooked Cat shows up, as well, warning us to stop interfering with his master's plans... or else. Of course, we're not going to listen to that warning. We find a passageway underwater that brings us to the village where the Crooked Man has taken Renee, hoping to spark memories in her of his fiancee's life there. We catch up to them, but the Crooked Man uses his magical cane to destroy the building we're standing in - nearly destroying us, as well. We make it out in the nick of time, and manage to make it to the Windmill where the Crooked Man has taken Renee. We arrive just in time to see him place his enchanted ring on her finger - only Renee doesn't turn into a wooden puppet like the other girl did. Instead, she suddenly remembers her past life as Cheryl, the fiancee of the nobleman who is now the Crooked Man. She also remembers being chased to a cliff by him and falling over. She blames him for her death. It's then that the Crooked Man spots us and makes his getaway with Renee, via a tower of crystals. We set out, once again, to hunt the two of them down. On the way, we run into the ghost we have seen repeatedly since this nightmare began. She tells us she is the spirit of Cheryl herself, but that she will disappear now that Renee recalls her previous life. She urges us to help Renee - and to free Blaise, the Crooked Man, from the curse he's under. We track the Crooked Man and Renee back to the mansion the man used to live in when he was known as Count Morellus. He tells us to stop interfering or he'll send Parn, his Crooked Cat, to hunt us down. Renee also speaks, telling us to let her be so that she can finish what was started in her past life. Of course, we don't listen. In our continued poking around in the mansion and grounds, we learn of Mother Goose, who travels the realm cursing people with enchanted objects and rhymes. She is the one who gave Count Morellus the magical cane and ring that caused his madness - as well as the magical bell used to turn Parn the kitten into the Crooked Cat he now is. We head into the mansion, where Parn is waiting to threaten us again. He runs off without making good on his threats and we continue on our way. We find Renee, but she seems to be unconscious. We wake her, only to be confronted by the Count and Parn, who unceremoniously throws us out the window. We try to enter the mansion again, only to find him blocking our progress. We knock down a beam supporting the roof, bringing the ceiling down on Parn and exposing him to the moonlight - which seems to burn him. We use this against him and watch as he turns into a wooden puppet when the moonlight strikes him. Heading back through the dark forest, we set out to find the house the Crooked Man told Renee he had finished building for her. Once there, we find it's in a Wonderland-esque pocket of the forest. Inside the house, we find Renee in a wedding gown. The Crooked Man is there, and he's about to kill us when Renee begs him to stop hurting people. She stands up to him, telling him that she will stay with him, but she refuses to marry him because his love has become warped and is no longer real. The Crooked Man reacts with fury, destroying the house in the woods and dragging Renee off to force her to marry him against her will. He declares that he will destroy the world and kill everyone in it, so that the entire world can be her "cage". She tells him he's insane. We sneak up on the two of them and shoot his cane with the enchanted wedding ring, destroying them both. The Crooked Man begins to crumble apart. He goes after his cane just as lightning strikes the statue beside Renee/Cheryl. There is a flurry of activity and a cloud of debris and smoke as the statue crashes to the ground. When the dust clears, we see that Blaise left his cane to fall off the nearby cliff in order to make it to Renee's side and protect her from the falling statue. He tells her that the saddest moment in his life was watching her die the first time and he could never watch her die again. He tells her she is free now... and he steps back off of the cliff to his death. Galleries Screenshots= loading intro.jpg|Loading Image ctcmatcc main menu.jpg|Main Menu cursery main title.jpg|Main Title |-|Wallpapers= 01_wallpaper_download.png 02_wallpaper_download.png 03_wallpaper_download.png 04_wallpaper_download.png 05_wallpaper_download.png 06_wallpaper_download.png 07_wallpaper_download.png 08_wallpaper_download.png 09_wallpaper_download.png 10_wallpaper_download.png 11_wallpaper_download.png 12_wallpaper_download.png 13_wallpaper_download.png 14_wallpaper_download.png 15_wallpaper_download.png |-|Other Images= Geppetto crooked.jpg|Geppetto's Secret Room, with Crooked Man, Cat and Mouse Figures crooked man book.jpg|Book of The Crooked Man in Geppetto's Secret Room Category:Spin-Off Games